thread

I began embroidering on plastic in order to map inner sensations. Stitching, by nature both a record and a rendering, compels me as a mapping tool, and I found in the grocery bags ready receptacles for content. Working with the bags, I became involved in the surfaces of the plastic and the shapes and weight of each bag, with the result that these pieces are no longer internal maps but rather records of my interactions with the materials themselves. Each drawing is a reaction to its support, while simultaneously the act of embroidering transforms the surface, weight and shape of the support, giving rise to a constant dialogue.

Plastic grocery bags are ubiquitous, unnecessary and unfortunate, in addition to which they are traveling advertisements making them all the more disagreeable. My way of reconciling myself to the existence of these unfortunate objects is to notice and embellish their beauty, transforming surface and form simultaneously through stitching.

Throughout my life I have developed two creative practices side by side. Drawing and painting I considered my art. My other practices, knitting, crochet, spinning, embroidery, and quilting, I called craft. For me, art was without function and the functional was never quite art, but slowly the two forms have converged, and the line between them has blurred. These drawings on plastic are the result of this blurring of boundaries. They are moments that notice what our world is made of and what we ourselves choose to make.